On CB3's SLA docket for March: The return of Mono + Mono and Poco's sidewalk cafe

[EVG file photo of Mono + Mono]

CB3 has released its rundown of meetings for March... including for the SLA & DCA Licensing Committee.

Here's a quick look at a few of the items on the docket. (The questionnaires with more information about the applicants and their intentions haven't been posted online just yet.)

But first! The meeting is Monday, March 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. (corner of the Bowery).

And now...

Sidewalk Cafe Applications

• Poco (Becaf LLC), 33 Ave B

CB3 voted to deny the renewal of a sidewalk cafe permit for Poco, who advertises having a "legendary boozy brunch," in December 2015. Neighbors have described Poco as being a "horror show," particularly during the brunch hours.

The restaurant's website notes: "Poco was built for one purpose — to be home away from home for the local residents of NYC's most unique, authentic neighborhood — Alphabet City."

• Mamak (Love Mamak Corp), 174 2nd Ave.

The Thai restaurant at the corner of 11th Street is vying for a sidewalk cafe.

New Liquor License Applications

• Monomono Inc, 116 E 4th St (wb)-EXPEDITED APPLICATION

Nearly four years have passed since a two-alarm fire swept through the single-level building that housed Mono + Mono, which specialized in Korean fried chicken.

The owners have said that they would reopen. For now, a flower shop is holding forth in the space between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

• Fresh Press Cafe LLC, 77 2nd Ave (op)

Something in the works for the former Ballaro space, the cafe that closed between Fourth Street and Fifth Street last February.

• To be Determined, 140 1st Ave (op)

The owners of Big Lee's (aka the Hard Swallow Saloon), which has been closed of late, are applying for a new liquor license.

• RSVP Hospitality LLC, 11 E 1st St (op)

Not sure about this one... the address for Bowery Meat Co. is 9 E. First St. ... and L'Apicio is 13 E. First St.

• Novo Partners, 57 2nd Ave (op)

This is one of the empty retail spaces of an Icon Realty-owned building.

• Mandolino Inc, 137 E 13th St (op)

The pizzeria opened last month between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

• Hi Collar (Sobaya Restaurant Inc), 214 E 10th St (upgrade to op)

---

b=beer & cider | wb=wine, beer & cider | op=liquor, wine, beer & cider | alt=alterations

On 3rd Avenue, rooftop cottage back in play, though now it's $19k monthly

Just about one year ago, the penthouse cottage atop the building that houses Kiehl's on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street hit the rental market for $17k a month...



The 1,972-square-foot rooftop duplex is once again available as a rental — but this time the asking rent is $19k a month.

Via Corcoran...

Rent an iconic penthouse, featured in a number of publications for its unique rooftop cottages perched atop this historic boutique pre-war condominium. Penthouse 4CD is a breathtaking light-filled, three bedroom, three bath duplex with four wood-burning fireplaces and two private garden terraces totaling 795 square feet.

This loft-like home features soaring 11'8" ceilings, exquisitely restored exposed brick, pristine hardwood oak floors, and carefully crafted carpentry throughout. Spanning nearly forty feet, with bright South and West exposures, the corner living and dining room are separated by a magnificent brick archway and bookended by two gracious wood-burning fireplaces.

The place is available furnished — short term or long term. The owner is listed as Keyland Ny LLC, who bought the unit in 2015 for $4.4 million.

The landmarked building, constructed in the 1850s, is known as Pear Tree Place. It was converted to condos in 1986, according to Streeteasy.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Live in tranquil cottages overlooking … 3rd Avenue (but still)

Updating: Fire reported on the rooftop at Kiehl's on 3rd Avenue

3rd Avenue penthouse cottage returns to market as a $17k monthly rental

Performance at Vector Gallery draws heavy FDNY presence on 3rd Street

Tonight over on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, the Vector Galley was hosting an event/performance described as "a Vectorian Mass dedicated to the 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.'"

Whether there was an issue related to over-crowding or perhaps a report of a fire, the FDNY showed up around 9:20 ...



Per one witness: "The FDNY has had 3 trucks parked outside for at least 20 minutes now. Seems like a fire code violation for capacity though I heard one person say they saw people burning stuff in the small gallery."





Here's more on tonight's event at the gallery:

B!R!A!VANA is an alchemical exorcise to advance The so-called "Peace Process" beyond the impasse that has become salient to the frozen architecture of the region.

As always, we are delighted to micromanage the political affairs of The Middle East and will employ ritual pageantry to advance the immortal will of our imperial interests.

BRAVANA will feature new visual art by Crown Prince of Hell JJ Brine as well performances by Ministers of The Vectorian Government.

Vectorian Minister of State ("The Enforcer") Lena Marquise will manifest Syrian First Lady ASMA AL-ASSAD.

Vectorian Minister of Growth ("The Soldier") Michael Bianchino will manifest UNCLE SAM.

Vectorian Minister of Ceremonies ("The Bride") Cecily Feitel will manifest THE ULTRA-ZIONIST ISRAELI SETTLER.

Vectorian Minister of Education ("The Assassin") Montgomery Harris will manifest THE PALESTINIAN PROTESTOR.

The gallery opened back in August.

Thank you to Aaron Wilson for the photos!

Report: There's opposition to lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park

On Monday night, City Council Member Rosie Mendez and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation held a community meeting on the Tompkins Square Park Avenue B children’s playground renovation.

Mendez has allocated capital funds to renovate the playground on Avenue B between Seventh Street and Eighth Street. Meanwhile, the Parks Department wants to supplement the funding with its Parks Without Borders initiative that would lower the fences from its present height of 7 feet to 4 feet.

There is opposition to the fence-lowering plan.

Allegra Hobbs covered the meeting for DNAinfo. A quick excerpt:

Parents who take their kids to Tompkins Square Park are begging the city Parks Department to abandon a controversial plan to lower the fences around the play area by three feet, claiming the tall barriers provide much-needed security in a park overrun by vagrants, substance abusers, and rowdy college students.

However!

[T]he Parks Department believes lowering the fences would actually make the play areas safer — lowering barriers that block sight lines discourages negative behavior while at the same time making the green space more open and aesthetically pleasing, argued Manhattan Parks Borough Commissioner Bill Castro.

The article included a comment from one parent in favor of lowering the fences. "[O]ne mother with an 18-month-old child said she could could see the alteration creating a more open and healthy environment for kids." She also said that "she would support the fences staying as they are if that were the majority opinion."

Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver will make the final determination on the fence lowering. DNAinfo reports that he expects to make a decision by the spring.

Read the full article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Community meeting set to discuss lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park (28 comments)

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Mark Seamon
Occupation: Owner, Love Shine, Artist
Location: 6th Street between Avenue A and B
Date: Monday, Feb 27, at 1 p.m.

Seamon recently announced that after 20 years, Love Shine, which sells handmade bags, accessories and gifts, is closing up shop at the end of March, and moving the business online.

I grew up in Long Island, about 20 minutes outside Manhattan. My mom lived there and my dad lived in the city, so I was sort of back and forth. I moved to the neighborhood in 1980 at 19 years old. My first entry into the East Village was a friend of our family who was living on St. Mark's Place. When I was still in high school, I was coming in to visit her a lot. That got me intrigued by the East Village. It was right in the heart of St. Mark’s during the prime music time. It was so cool – I thought it was the coolest place in the world.

I stayed with her for 6 months, and then I found the apartment with my sister on Sixth Street between 1st and A. I was in college, and it’s still the apartment that I’m living in now. It was really dicey. This side of Avenue A was pretty bombed out looking.

When I got out of school, I was doing my art, and the plan was in order to keep doing my art, I needed to get a job, so I started cooking. I was a chef for a long time. I went to cooking school, and after I got out I opened up a restaurants on 14th Street with two friends from school called Babette’s. That lasted about a year. It was a really fun place — I don’t regret it, but it didn’t work out.

Then I got into catering, and I worked for "Saturday Night Live" for a long time doing catering for them. While I was doing that, I got a job at a place called Florent, which was in the Meatpacking District, and I worked there from 1986 to 1992. The Meatpacking was still the Meatpacking, but the restaurant itself was actually one of the places that began the change, because it was a super-trendy place — it was a real destination spot.

From there, I worked in a couple other restaurants, and then I started getting involved with this business [Love Shine]. I got involved in a relationship with a guy who was a costume designer, and I was doing my painting, and so we did some traveling around Mexico. We actually spend two months living there, and while we were there we started making things together. He was sewing up bags and I was painting on them. Then we started giving them to friends and that started to turn into a little bit of a business. We were just working out of his apartment. Then a friend of ours had a booth at a trade now and we started selling them through there.

Fast forward seven years later, we had a little business selling to other stores and working out of his apartment, but then he passed away. At that point, I had this business going on but I had no place to work, so I was trying to figure out my next step - if I wanted to keep it going or not. I went to a party right down the block and I met this woman who was a real-estate agent in the neighborhood. She said, ‘I’ve got this really great spot, totally cheap and you can move right in.’

It was the space next door. It used to be Shaquille’s Reggae Record Lounge, but it was actually a drug front store. It was completely a front. It had a couple records in there. I knew the space just from living around here but had never went in. There were bullet holes, and then there were also these little cubbyhole spots where they would hide the drugs in the walls. But it was perfect. That was how the shop was born.

I figured I’d put all my bags in here, and my friends in Mexico were exporting stuff here, and I thought I’d decorate the store with all their things as well. That was 1997. I had that space for 10 years. The landlords changed over a couple times and my rent almost tripled in the time that I was there, so it was no longer that cheap. Then this space opened. It was occupied by a friend of mine who is a painter.

I do think that it was the people that lived here that made the neighborhood special. It was the diversity of the neighborhood - the Latinos mixing with the gays with the musicians with the Ukranians. It was just a big melting pot. There was a lot of art coming out of here and a lot of galleries back there for awhile. there was a lot of music. There was a big burgeoning gay and lesbian scene that was going on. There was a lot of creative energy and people trying new things. People homesteading apartments and buildings. There was kind of a sense of discovery and excitement. I think that shaped the community.

You could just be like, ‘Oh that’s a nice space,’ hang up a sign, and open up a shop, and your overheard was low enough that you could kind of make it work. We would do lots of events and have these parties and fashion shows on the street. There was an energy in this neighborhood that people responded to.

Over time, people just kind of lost interest in it. There wasn’t as much of the communal feeling. It was like the whole demographic shifted in a very weird way. I actually thought it was going to turn into better business. For some reason, I feel like we became less relatable. I think that maybe this place confused people. They weren’t quite sure what we were doing here. People used to work night jobs ... but then they were around during the day and walking the streets. Now no one’s around. It’s a ghost town during the day.

Our future is that we plan on moving our workshop into a studio, which is in my friend’s apartment right now. We’re going to work on expanding our online business. We’d like to continue to do stuff in the community if we can, maybe some markets or pop-ups. We want to stay here, you know, and we might reopen at another point if we can ever find a space that we could afford, but for right now we are just going to focus on the online. That seems to be the only part of the business that’s growing for us. The rest has been going down.

You can find Love Shine via their website as well as Facebook and Etsy.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Apartment listings at 250 E. Houston look to offer glimpse of former Red Square's future

[The current No. 250]

Last fall, Red Square, the 13-floor residential complex at 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, changed hands for a reported $100 million.

A letter to residents noted some "very exciting changes" coming to the building, which was apparently dropping the Red Square moniker. Among other things, the common areas would be refurbished.

There are currently eight available units (ranging from $2,900 to $4,500) on Streeteasy.

The renderings that accompany the listings show a luxurified version of its current self... with more high-end retail than what's currently in place...







... and another view of the entrance... with some awesome scalies...



Not sure if this is really the future or just wishful thinking.

The building opened in June 1989. Workers removed the building's statue of Lenin from the roof in September.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors: Red Square has been sold

New ownership makes it official at the former Red Square on East Houston

Pardon My French team bringing Moroccan cuisine to 4th Street with Chouchou

The owner and executive chef of Pardon My French on Avenue B are behind this Moroccan venture that officially debuts tonight at 215 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Here's a description via the Chouchou website:

The restaurant offers a contemporary take on classic Mediterranean favorites with the menu featuring Tagine lamb, spiced couscous, Moroccan pastries and fresh tangy salads.

Florence Fabricant had this to say in a mini preview in The New York Times:

[Executive chef David] Pegoli, who also worked at Luksus, has created a menu of six couscous preparations, as well as four tagines, including a lobster version, served in a collection of the elegantly embossed ceramic vessels of the same name.

Traditional tajines, couscous and pastries are prepared just as they should be by meticulous chef David Pegoli who imports all his spices from Morocco 🔥🤤 . . . . #eeeeeats #eatingnyc #tastingtable #newforkcity #eaterny #forkyeah #nycfat #devourpower #hungry #westvillage #nyc #newyorkcity #onemoredish #moroccan #morocconyc #moroccanfood #couscousnyc #eastvillage #opening #restaurantopening #couscousmarocain #tajine #couscous

A post shared by CHOUCHOU NYC (@chouchounyc) on Feb 22, 2017 at 2:00pm PST

CB3 originally recommended to deny the applicant's bid for a full liquor license for the space last September... in part because of the proposed 4 a.m. closing time on a side street that already had 18 full on-premises liquor licenses within 500 feet. The local block association was also against the full license. (The PDF of the official minutes are here.) The SLA website shows that there is an active license here for Restaurant Wine.

Until May 2016, the address was home for 13 years to the Italian restaurant In Vino.

You can find Chouchou's menu here. Chouchou is open daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.

Odin's East Village location has closed on 11th Street

[Photo by Bayou]

After 12 years in business, Odin has closed its East Village location on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The men's boutique still has two other locations — on Grand Street and Greenwich Avenue. (In 2007, New York magazine named Odin "Best Fashion-y Men’s Store.")

There isn't any mention of the closure on Odin's social media accounts ... and we don't know the reason behind this decision, whether it was a rent increase or a slowdown in business — or both.

The owners also shut down Pas de Deux, their 9-year-old women’s boutique next door.

Tuesday's parting shot

The foggy view around 5:15 earlier this evening via Bobby Williams...

St. Mark's Bookshop closed 1 year ago today

[Photos from yesterday]

After 38 years at four locations, St. Mark's Bookshop closed for good on Feb. 28, 2016, at 136 E. Third St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. (There was a one-day epilogue sale the following week.)

Anyway, one year later, the Feb. 28 closing signs remain on the storefront...



The storefront has been on the market. The entire 1,328-square-foot space (no basement access) is available for $6,640 per month.

The Bookshop's longtime home at 31 Third Ave. also remains vacant more than 2.5 years later. St. Mark's Bookshop moved to Third Street in July 2014.

Previously

Going with the flow on St. Mark's Place

[Photo Sunday by Derek Berg]

This past weekend this commissioned calligraffiti arrived outside David's Cafe on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue ... via Rodolphe Lsg (@moi_ny)

Report: Details emerge about the city's plans for HDFC buildings

More details are emerging about Mayor de Blasio's plan to impose new regulations on nearly 1,200 privately owned co-ops, including a number in the East Village.

The co-op buildings are part of the city’s Housing Development Fund Corp. (HDFC) program, which gives homesteaders ownership of blighted buildings, along with certain conditions and enticements, per the Post, where the story was Page 1 on Sunday (with the headline "Man of Steal.")

Per the article:

The private co-ops were once derelict buildings in neighborhoods like Harlem, Washington Heights and the Lower East Side that the cash-strapped city sold to residents beginning in the 1980s for as little as $250 per unit. The city was happy to off-load the headache properties, which had been abandoned by absentee landlords or seized from tax deadbeats.

Over the years, the homesteaders banded together to create livable apartments, and at the same time revitalized blighted neighborhoods.

Now, the city wants to seize control of what have become valuable assets, and livid residents are preparing for a legal war to stop it.

While many of the co-op buildings have prospered, the city says 27 percent of them are in "significant distress" from mismanagement and other issues.

According to the Post, with de Blasio’s proposal, two years in the making, the buildings would sign 40-year agreements with City Hall that would put them under the watch of a nonprofit monitor that the city would choose, and the co-op would pay for.

Several Manhattan City Council members are asking the city — specifically Maria Torres-Springer, the incoming Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) commissioner — to hold off on the process to "ensure real meaningful input" from co-op residents.

"There was virtually no consultation with HDFC shareholders as this regulatory agreement was being crafted, and it was essentially sprung on them after it was already completed,” Council member Corey Johnson told the Post. (The paper called de Blasio's planning "Stalinesque.")

Critics contend this is merely a political move to boost the mayor's affordable housing numbers. Per the Post: "De Blasio has pledged to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing in 10 years — and the controversial plan would add 30,000 units to his inventory."

A spokesperson for the mayor said that said the proposal was meant to protect HDFC co-ops.

One EVG reader and co-op resident recently summed up the situation this way:

This new proposed Regulatory Agreement is overreaching and would result in a loss of autonomy and decision-making abilities that benefit HDFC buildings, as well as costing individual shareholders hard-earned equity.

The new rules include a 30 percent flip tax on all units when they sell; the requirement of hiring outside managers and monitors at our expense; a ban on owning other residential property within a 100-mile radius of New York City; and more draconian clauses. Community meetings to discuss the agreement have been contentious and hostile, and so far not one HDFC in the entire city has publicly supported the plan. Very few HDFCs in the city need financial help and we strongly oppose a "one size fits all" regulatory agreement that will cost us money, resources, and most important, value in our home equity.

And...

The problem was that HDP wrote the Regulatory Agreement without any input from HDFC shareholders. When we caught wind of what was happening, we were able to force a community meeting, with the help of Council Member Mendez's office. They have since held a handful of meetings but say they are moving forward within the next couple of months. They are also not giving a clear timeline, which of course has many of us panicked.

For more background, you may visit the HDFC Coalition website here. There is also a petition here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meeting on Jan. 17 for shareholders living in HDFC buildings

CB3 will hear HPD presentation on HDFC regulatory agreement this Wednesday night

Bricks and penthouses come into view at Steiner East Village

Just a periodic update after our weekend walk through Steinertown on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street ... more and more of the bricks of the 7-story, 82-unit building called Steiner East Village come into view...



...and from the 12th Street side (developer Douglas Steiner's condoplex is officially at 438 E. 12th St) ....



The building features homes starting at $1.1 million... with the 4-bedroom penthouse with 1,364 square feet of terraces that was asking $11.25 million. Amenities in Stei Town include a 24-hour lobby concierge, 50-foot long pool, spa, gym, library, playroom, parking and, in some cases, views of a 7-Eleven.

Steiner bought the former Mary Help of Christians property in 2012 from the Archdiocese of New York for $41 million.

Previously

JuiceGo a go on 9th Street

JuiceGo opened this past weekend at 333 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The storefront sells a variety of made-to-order cold-pressed juices, smoothies, salads and sandwiches. You can find the JuiceGo website with more info here.

Thanks to Steven for the photo!

Previously on EV Grieve:
JuiceGo opening in the former Cadillac's Castle storefront on 9th Street

A sign of spring

The Hare Krishna tree in Tompkins Square Park is in bloom, as seen in the above photo via Steven...

Reader report: A sheetrock hazard on 12th Street

Via the EVG inbox...

A truck with one of those crane things on it just pulled up to 505 E. 12th St. and lifted a bunch of sheetrock up to a top-floor window. The street is not blocked off, and the sidewalk isn't blocked off. People are actually walking under the sheetrock as it dangles outside the window. Don't they need to block off the street and sidewalk? I am filing a complaint with 311.

Shortly after this a construction worker with a flag arrived on the sidewalk, and they put up a barrier to prevent people from walking underneath the sheetrock delivery.

194-196 Avenue A and 503-505 E. 12th St. changed hands in late 2015.

A boutique office building a possibility for Broadway and 11th Street

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

Last spring, The Real Deal reported that Normandy Real Estate Partners was in contract to buy 797-799 Broadway at 11th Street for somewhere in the $100 million ballpark.

Now The Real Deal hears what might be in the works for the corner:

Normandy Real Estate Partners and Ares Management are weighing plans to develop a boutique office building on Broadway ... not far from the commercial property at 51 Astor Place that locals have dubbed the Death Star ...

The partners would develop a 200,000-square-foot, Class A office building at 797-799 Broadway, which they bought last summer for $101 million, as TRD reported at the time.

A 138,000-square-foot Class B office building ... now sits on the site, and the developers would not be able to begin construction until leases expire in 2019. The tenants are a mix of medical offices and small-time retailers.

51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star is 400,000 square feet, so this new project, while quite larger than the current building, would still be half the size of its neighborhood to the southeast.

797-799 Broadway is noteworthy for many reasons. It opened in 1853 as the St. Denis Hotel, which is where Ulysses S. Grant wrote his post-Civil War memoirs and Alexander Graham Bell provided the first demonstration of the telephone to New Yorkers.

6th Street retail space bricked up for residential use

[EVG file photo]

After 12 years in business, the rental shop that specialized in Indian music and Bollywood cinema closed in the fall of 2015 at 343 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Then J-Mar Special Touch barber shop came and went in two months last year...


[Photo by Michael Hirsch]

The retail space was on the rental market via several different brokers afterwards. Apparently, there weren't any takers. Last week, workers started bricking up former storefront...





...and yesterday...



There aren't any permits on file with the city for this work, so we don't know exactly what the landlord's intentions are ... it looks, though, as if the space will now be an apartment. (And the landlord is listed in public records as an LLC with a Queens address.)

Updated:

Thanks to the commenter who spotted the apartment listing on Streeteasy...

New Studio being Renovated!
Ground Floor with Windows on E 6th Street
Brand New Kitchen and Bathroom
Hardwood floors
Still in process of renovations
Heat/Water included
Live in Super
Must See

The 300-square-foot unit is asking $1,999.

[UPDATED] Haile Bistro looks to be closed

Last week, we noted that VeryThai is coming to 186 Avenue B between 11th Street and 12th Street. In the comments, a reader said that Haile Bistro, the new restaurant's neighborhood, had been dark of late.



Indeed, the family-run Ethiopian outpost remained shut all last week and through the weekend... the interior looks to be in the process of being cleaned up...



There aren't any closed notices on the storefront or Haile's website. The phone goes unanswered. Haile opened in 2013, and was an affordable dining option.

The space was previously home to Fu Sushi.

Updated:
The restaurant will reopen on March 14!

Express Thali pulls into 2nd Avenue

On Thursday, a reader shared the above photo ... workers removing the sign for the now-closed Golden Crepes restaurant on Second Avenue between Fourth Street and Fifth Street...

Signage was up Friday for the new tenant — Express Thali, which will be serving "pure vegetarian Indian cuisine," per the sign...


[Photo by @EdenBrower]

Golden Crepes opened in late 2014... it took over from the Turkish restaurant 7 Spices.